Laura MacCorkle Christian Blog and Commentary

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Noah on Course for the Big Screen

Oh, Noah. We thought we’d already seen enough of you in motion pictures.

There was “The Spectacle of the Ages” called Noah’s Ark way back in 1928. And most recently, funny-man Steve Carell steered you in to the twenty-first century in 2007’s Evan Almighty (the not-so-successful follow-up to Bruce Almighty)

But apparently your story still holds water, and there’s going to be one more retelling coming soon to a movie theater near us all.

Paramount Pictures and New Regency Productions announced this week that Academy Award®-nominated director Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain) will direct the feature film Noah. Academy Award®-nominated screenwriter John Logan (Gladiator, The Aviator) will rewrite the script by Aronofsky and Ari Handel, while Aronofsky and Scott Franklin will produce. (Rumor also has it that Academy Award®-winning actor Christian Bale [The Fighter] could star.)

Aronofsky is said to have had this motion-picture idea cooking for a while now.

“Since I was a kid, I have been moved and inspired by the story of Noah and his family’s journey,” he says. “The imaginations of countless generations have sparked to this epic story of faith. It’s my hope that I can present a window into Noah’s passion and perseverance for the silver screen.”

Oh, I get it. A window! The raven, the dove . . . but I digress.

The story of Noah is epic for sure, one that many of us who grew up in church probably heard lots of times while in Sunday school or Bible club. I remember fixating on the animals and thinking how interesting it must have been to have all different kinds living in one big vessel for forty days and forty nights. Who got the bunk beds and who got the pallets on the floor? And what about meal times and midnight snacks?

Now that I’m an adult, I think more about the person of Noah and what kind of man he must have been to do what he did.

In Genesis 6, we read how Noah was the only godly person that God could find in a time when people were exceedingly evil. God told him that a great flood was coming to destroy the earth and instructed Noah to build an ark for himself and his family. God also told him to take some of each species of every creature with him on the ark so that they would be preserved as well.

Noah was 480 years old at the time when God told him to build an ark, but it took 120 years to complete. After the Flood ended, Noah was 600. And then he went on to live 350 more years.

When I think about the circumstances surrounding Noah and God’s provision, I am amazed. Also, the amount of detail given to Noah as to how to build the ark to the exact specifications given to him by God is astounding.

And then when I think about what faith it must have taken for Noah to do something so extreme—in obedience to God and despite what everyone around him must have thought or have said to him while building this monstrosity of a vessel—I wonder what the modern-day equivalent would be of his example.

Should God ask me to do something so “extreme” as well, would I be immediately obedient and submissive to his will as Noah was?

It’s something to think about.

And speaking of thoughts, what are yours? Now that we know another interpretation of Noah is coming to the big screen, would you go see it? Or do we really need another Hollywood offering when it comes to this epic story of faith?

If so inclined, brave the waters and share your comments below.